SPORTS OF THE TIMES; Little Room for Error In the Postseason

By GEORGE VECSEY

Published: October 7, 2009

This Yankee team looks as if it could surely survive gnats and rally monkeys and other road ambushes and beat any National League team that showed up near the end of the month. Could. Maybe even should.

By virtue of their 103 victories, the most in the majors, they have raised the specter of the old days, when they used to win the World Series in early October or late October.

Mostly because of the cable television loot that enabled the front office to bring in Mark Teixeira and C. C. Sabathia and A. J. Burnett, this could very well be the best Yankee team since the old gang broke up after the 2001 season. The best defense. The most versatile.

Yankee fans have reason to have high expectations as the postseason begins Wednesday night against the Twins at the new Yankee Stadium.

The vaguely quizzical yet perhaps also slightly horrified look on Derek Jeter's face Tuesday suggested that he did not want to deal with the high expectations stemming from a special season.

''We're hot,'' Jeter announced to reporters, his mocking tone suggesting he was being overly dramatic. Then he got real. ''We're in the playoffs. It's a short series, anything is possible.''

Jeter and Manager Joe Girardi and the rest know enough not to be giddy. Jeter and Girardi go back to 1996, when the Yankees began a run of winning four of five World Series. They played for Joe Torre, who after a few years of experience would solemnly remind people that in a best-of-five opening series, things can go bad in a hurry. One bad inning and the whole season is suddenly in jeopardy, in Yankeeland, where only championships count.

This sense of entitlement used to be personified by George Steinbrenner, but Yankee fans -- heck, even neutral blokes like me -- have long since internalized their Inner Boss. With all this money, these guys ought to win another World Series one of these years, but specifically this one.

They have not won a title since 2000, because of flaws in the lineup, more technical flaws than character flaws, but flaws nonetheless. The Boss is 79 and does not come around much.

Win one for the Boss? Win one for ourselves, Jeter said with his winning smile that softens all sarcasm.

''We've done a lot of great things,'' Jeter said. ''We hope we can continue.''

In this summer of the new palace, Jeter and Mariano Rivera hit landmark figures in their best-Yankee-ever categories, Teixeira quickly became the best Yankee first baseman since -- who? Lou Gehrig? -- and Sabathia became the ace everybody expected. Oh, yes, and Alex Rodriguez had himself a monster inning on the final Sunday to lift his season totals to 30 homers and 100 runs batted in, theoretically giving him some momentum into the postseason.

''Seems like he's having fun, since we got him back,'' Jeter said, alluding to the hip injury that held back Rodriguez early in the season.

Rodriguez and Jeter and Robinson Cano could concentrate on their offense knowing that if they threw the ball in the general direction of first base, Teixeira's supple hands would hold on to the ball. This has not been the case since the first hitch of Tino Martinez ended after 2001.

It would not be fair to blame Jason Giambi for the Yankee drought, but, like a one-hopper clanking off a glove, his expensive importation did not quite work out. This is a new era. Since midseason the Yankees have looked more like the Yankees than any time since 2001.

When the Yankees departed for Anaheim in the 2002 postseason, somebody said to Jeter, But you guys have all that experience. ''Some of us have,'' Jeter said. That was seven years ago.

Are the Yankees truly back? Depends on the definition. These are not the Twins, who are measured by their gritty trek into the postseason with the 12-inning victory over the Tigers on Tuesday. These are not the Diamondbacks or Angels or Marlins or Red Sox or White Sox or Cardinals or Phillies, who have had their special moments in the gloom and drizzle and midnight drudgery the World Series has become. These are the Yankees. They used to own this month, or at least act like they did.

''The playoffs, for us, have been so short,'' Jeter said Tuesday, cautioning reporters not to be cocky on his behalf.

But you all had such a good record this year, somebody said.

''Doesn't make any difference,'' Jeter said.

He would not go near the suggestion that these Yankees might be a throwback to a decade ago.

''You don't try to judge teams till the season's over,'' Jeter said, almost reprovingly, as if to say, you should know better than that.

But the Yankees have had such a good season, somebody said.

''Done that before,'' Jeter said.

The captain was a spectator in the tantalizing first round of 1995. He's been the heart of the team ever since. He knows the drill. In Yankeeland, it really starts now.